Cinnamon Buns

Growing up I really loved food. I was my mom’s assistant in the kitchen. She would get me to measure the flour, make sure it was level and count very closely. After much insistence I received an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. I loved this thing. You mix your little packet of cake mix with water or milk, put it in the 3 inch cake pan and bake it in the little light bulb heated oven for 7-10 minutes until it was baked. Then I would decorate the little cake with frosting from a container and sprinkles. The cake would then be shared by myself and my little sister who was too young to use the Easy Bake Oven and not happy about it.

Eventually I upgraded to being allowed to use the oven by myself which was a big deal and I started baking recipes I found in my Mom’s Company’s Coming books.

Banana bread, cookies, muffins, and cakes. There was a number of mishaps for certain but gradually I got a bit better as time went on. I went through this phase of love for cinnamon. I found this recipe for yeast less cinnamon buns that I started to make. When I first started making these cinnamon buns I would get frustrated because the dough was sticky and sometimes the filling would boil over. Then on one occasion I had scaled up all the ingredients and then proceeded to mix up the butters for the filling and the dough. The dough had extra butter in it and became much smoother and easier to work with. With a little less butter in the filling and a little less sugar, it wouldn’t boil out as easily. Then I started putting them in a muffin tin to bake them so the filling wouldn’t flow out completely.

Cinnamon Buns

Flour 2 cups

Butter 1/3 cup

Sugar 2 Tbsp

Salt 1 tsp

Milk 1 cup

Butter 1/4 cup

Brown Sugar 3/4 cup

Cinnamon 1.5 tsp

Procedure:

Dry blend the sugar, salt, and flour. Cut in the butter. Add milk and stir until combined. To make filling cream the sugar and butter and cinnamon until spreadable. Roll out dough. Spread with filling. Roll up. Cut into 12 rolls and put in muffin tins. Bake at 375F.

My interests only grew from there. I started volunteering at this used bookstore/cafe called Sam’s Place. I saw my first ever fresh baked bread. I was able to help with some of the specials and because of a very delicious coffee cake called Blueberry Boy Bait

I started following the Smitten Kitchen blog and I have been nurturing my interest in food, baking and pastry. It stopped being something I would muddle around with in the kitchen and became what I actually wanted to do for a living.

Eventually I applied for Culinary Arts and really just got hooked on baking and pastry after taking a patisserie class.